ブラジル在住日系人小児の屈折状態

Refractive errors in Brazilian-born Japanese children

　父母あるいは祖父母が日本からブラジルに移民した日系人で，ブラジルで出生し，ブラジル共和国，サンパウロ市の学校に在学中の6歳から14歳までの小児618名，1236眼について，トロピカマイド点眼後レフラクトメーターによる屈折検査を行った。

　同じ方法で検査した同年齢の日本人小児の屈折状態と比較した結果，6〜11歳ではブラジル在住小児の近視が多く，遠視は少なかったが，12〜14歳では両者の間に著しい差はみられなかった。

　すなわち，ブラジル在住日系人小児は日本人にくらべ近視の頻度は同じように高いが，近視が早くから発生している。

We evaluated the state of refraction in 1,236 eyes (618 cases) of schoolchildren in Sao Paulo in Brazil. All the subjects were of Japanese ancestry and were born in Brazil. The state of refraction was determined by refractometer under 0.5% tropi-camide cycloplegia.

The frequency and distribution of refractive error in the age group between 12 and 14 years were almost identical with those in Japanese chil-dren in Japan. A similar trend was observed in the age group between 6 and 11 years, with the sole dif-ference that myopia tends to become manifest at an earlier age in the Brazilian-born children than in .Japanese in Japan.